The Blue Jays lost Tuesday night in a rather flat affair against the visiting Minnesota Twins.

Afterward, the usual concerns about the team were heard.

Toronto saw starter J.A. Happ come up with an off-night and the offence stumble in a 4-0 loss to Minnesota. In other words, this was a pale image of the first-place team that has fans in Toronto warming to the possibility that this first-place thing is something that will last all summer.

And why not? The American League East so far has shown itself to be in a reverse pattern from the usual powerhouse division of the past decade and more. Collectively, the division is nine games under .500, with Toronto being the only outfit three or more games over the break-even point.

Whether that sub-par pattern continues is a hot topic in Toronto –— the Jays look primed to take advantage of the situation if it continues, sporting a league-leading offence, speed, depth, leadership and solid starting pitching for the most part.

But when the team comes up with a clunker like Tuesday night, attention turns to their golden opportunity in the East and what the club may need in terms of upgrades to continue to lead the pack.

Tuesday’s loss prevented the Jays from becoming the first American League team to reach 40 wins (The National League’s San Francisco Giants, with 42 wins, are the only team over the 40-win mark in the majors so far.)

But the question with Toronto is the same one that usually surfaces with any contending team — does it have enough starting pitching? Toronto didn’t have it Tuesday night from Happ, though he fought to the end of his 3 2/3-innings outing and may have gone longer with a little luck.

Happ is a bigger key than his fourth slot indicates; he is the third-ranking veteran on the staff, ahead in experience by a long-shot over Drew Hutchison and Marcus Stroman. He is more of a leader than a fourth-slotted arm with lower expectations.

Happ surrendered a walk and then a two-run homer to Brian Dozier to lead off the game. He fought and fought after that, and frequently got ahead two strikes but failed to put away batters.

The Twins represent one of the most patient teams in the league; they lead in pitches taken and walks. And they fouled off a lot of quality pitches from Happ, making him work harder (he logged 89 pitches for 11 outs).

“I agree with you, results are all that matters,” Happ said as he was pressed for his thoughts on his performance. “But I felt same the way I felt (in his previous wins). They are a patient club and they drove the pitch count up. It didn’t look good (results) but it felt better than it seemed.”

Jays manager John Gibbons, though, said on a night when your offence struggles, you “have to match them on the mound, and we didn’t get that.”

And that underlined the power of the starter, especially on home turf. Happ was making decent pitches, but he wasn’t making the right adjustments to finish off a stingy Twins team.

And that is the type of veteran savvy expected of him, and the type of pitching the Jays need a bit more of to become a well-rounded, capable contender.

Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos takes a cautious approach to the subject of improving his staff. The GM rightfully stressed the relatively early juncture of the season, but also indicated that if his club is in contention around the trade deadline at the end of July, the idea of bolstering the team via a trade will be presented to upper management.

For now, the results are good on paper, thanks to a tremendous winning streak through May. But confidence in the staff is eroding a bit, regardless of how well the five-man unit has done to date.

Happ, who entered the game with wins in four of his last five starts, exited with two out in the fourth. He loaded the bases in the fourth, then struck out Kurt Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar in a sudden burst of effectiveness.

But, trailing by two runs at the time, Happ was victimized by a Juan Francisco throwing error that cashed two more runs. Francisco bare-handed a slow roller up the line and would have done well to simply eat the play and concede just one run (he had no chance of getting the speedy Danny Santana at first). But Francisco tried for an all but impossible play and threw the ball away, allowing a second run to score.

Gibbons yanked Happ after the fourth run, and while reliever Chad Jenkins kept the Twins off the scoreboard over the next three innings, the Jays offence continued its game-long struggle.

Twins starter Kevin Correia hung around until Dioner Navarro singled to lead off the Jays seventh. Correia did a fine job, limiting Toronto to six hits, all singles.

That underlined an off-night for the high-powered offence, and also marked the club’s third shutout loss in its last four games.

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